The subject matter herein generally relates to recycling systems and methods and, more particularly, to systems and methods for recycling one or more gases.
Some of the known semiconductor processing systems deposit semiconductor layers using chemical vapor deposition (“CVD”) or plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (“PECVD”). These systems flow a deposition gas through a processing chamber to deposit or otherwise grow the semiconductor layers. The deposition gas includes one or more chemical species for depositing the semiconductor layer. For example, known systems use silane (SiH4) and hydrogen (H2) gases to deposit semiconductor layers.
A significant portion of the deposition gases used in these systems goes unused. For example, in known systems that utilize silane to grow semiconductor layers, approximately 5 to 10% of the silane is consumed and used to deposit the semiconductor layer while the remaining 90 to 95% of the silane is exhausted as waste gas. This waste gas typically is abated by burning or otherwise disposing of the silane.
Given the relatively expensive cost of gases used to deposit semiconductor films, a need exists to reduce the amount of gases that are wasted during the deposition of semiconductor layers.